Little positive book

Recently, I have been really enjoying watching crafting videos on Youtube.  I watch art journaling and also junk journaling and one of my favourite junk journaling sites is The Paper Outpost.
I watched one on little books made using book pages and decided I needed to give this a go.  The link to the video is here
I changed mine a little as I made the covers from scraps of Kraft card and they are 5 cm x 5 cm so are small.  I also wanted them to have positive words in them and had great fun raiding my stash for stamps as well as printing words out too.

 Here's the front cover...

 and the back.

 I used book pages for the pages and then had a lot of fun decorating.

 I coloured some of the images with watercolour pencils...

 ...and added black watercolour crayon around the words, using a little water to smudge the colour out.

Although they were a little bit fiddly, I really enjoyed this little project.

I ended with happiness - we'd all like that, wouldn't we?

I also watched CreationsCeeCee who inspired my Pocket Doodle book last December.  She has been using up watercolour pages and I thought I could use up gel print pages, to make these bookmarks.

The link to her video is here  

Both of these are destined to be part of a birthday present for a work colleague who is very artistic herself, so I think she will like them.

Deja Vu - Storm Dennis

 In between the rain and winds currently outside, thanks to Storm Dennis this time, I noticed more exciting things in the garden.  Above is my bargain camellia (I don't know the name, but it came from 'the range' - one of my favourite shops - a couple of years ago).   I'm sure this is early, but very welcome.

 My first little Tete a Tete daffodil in the border.

 Another hellebore - I think this may be Picotee again.  I do like the delicate green and pink shading on the petals.

Snowdrops in a pot (and needing to be divided again, I think, once they have finished flowering).

 Storm Dennis has given us a lovely rainbow this afternoon though.

Yet again, we have been really lucky, which I am so thankful for.
I feel so sorry for those around the country where Dennis has wreaked havoc on houses and businesses - farmers being hit once again too with flooded land.  I hope that there will be a respite soon.

February in the garden (before Storm Ciara) and some new plants

 Yesterday was a lovely day with sunshine and even a bit of a blue sky.  I went into town and was tempted by some plants - some iris reticulata and more snowdrops (well, you can never have too many) as well as some geraniums.   Above is iris 'Harmony'...

 ...this is 'Pixie'...

 ...and this one is 'Painted Lady'.  I have never had much success with these plants, so I shall enjoy them in their pots and then plant them in the garden.  If they come back next year, that's a bonus.

The geraniums I bought are here - geranium cantabrigiense 'St Ola'.  I have potted them into pots where they will stay until April or May depending on the weather.  I have some cantabrigiense with pink flowers, so I think these white flowers will look good with them.

 My hellebores in the border are starting to flower - here is Harvington Pink speckled...

...and Harvington Single Red which has taken a couple of years to settle in.

 Cardamine quinquefolia is getting ready to flower and I think this may be a bit early.

 Lovely winter flowering honeysuckle is still flowering away and on a sunny day like yesterday, the scent was beautiful.

 The little flowers pack a real punch of fragrance.

 Here is hellebore 'Hello Ruby' still going well (in a small pot).  I will pot the poor thing on once it has finished flowering.

 Here are the snowdrops I bought yesterday.  I love them!

Finally, here's a plant we picked up at our local Aldi - Peperomia 'Napoli Nights'.  I had been seeing peperomias all over the internet in other blogs and decided this one was coming home with me.  It came in a sweet little stripy pot too. It will need re-potting soon, but I will let it settle in a bit first.  Today has been very windy and we have also had hail and sudden rain too, but so far, we have been a lot luckier than many areas of the UK.  If you are in the UK, I hope you have been safe through this storm.

February Artists' Trading Card (ATC)

Here is my February ATC (Artists' Trading Card), the second in my monthly projects.   I am really enjoying the whole process of making these - gathering the ideas, deciding on colour schemes, choosing images, making the gemstone pieces and using some of my stash! 
The base of the card is recycled packaging cardboard,  which is gessoed to give a lovely surface to work on.  My art journal is also made using this card for the pages.  The card has a gel press printed base of purple, white, silver and grey paint, with stamped 'rain' on half of it.  Half of the card has stencilled raindrops with clear texture paste and added glitter and the other half has stamped puddles, and raindrops with clear embossing powder.  The hearts stand a little away from the surface and are made from the cardboard, with satin board which has been embossed with an industrial pattern.  The gemstones are clear quartz, fluorite, kunzite, rutile quartz, white moonstone and an amethyst charm at the bottom.

The back has stamped raindrops with glossy accents over them to add a watery shine, a stamped snowdrop and the February verse. 
Now to start thinking about March...